PAST POSTS AUG 2015

Welcome back! I can't wait to see you all again. I hope you and your families had a great summer. I am very excited to start school and to start checking books out once more.

This year we are getting 689 new titles!! We are starting to add the new call numbers and have them ready for all of you as soon as possible.

Come prepared for an exciting adventure and year full of learning.

KINDER 4 & 5

Welcome back to school! Get ready for a year full of great stories and learning. You will be checking out one book from the beginning of the year. Don't forget you must return it back on time to check out a different one. See you soon!

1ST GRADE

Welcome back! 1st grade is filled with excitement at the library. You will be able to check out 2 books instead of one! That will give you a chance to take books both in English and Spanish. Also, you are now welcome to search for your favorite books by using the entire library. Hope you all have a great year!!

2ND GRADE

Welcome back to a great year! You will love coming to the library since lots of learning and new activities are waiting. In 2nd grade you will be able to check out 3 books! That will give you a chance to to choose books from all sections in the library, both in English AND Spanish. I look forward to a wonderful year!

K4 & K5

During our first classes we have been learning good manners with books and library citizenship. We had a great time watching a slide show and reading a book that taught us these important skills.

Our Kinder 4 students are having lots of fun! They have started choosing books to take to the classroom libraries and share with their peers. Our Kinder 5 students, seem really excited choosing their books to take home. Besides, now they can take TWO books home!! We are encouraging reading in English and Spanish and they are loving it.

1st Grade

During the first few weeks of school we have been reviewing the importance of treating books with respect and having good manners at the library. The students enjoyed watching a slide show about library citizenship.

We are announcing a change at the PS Library. Our students will be taking THREE books from now on in order to have them reading in English and Spanish. The children are very happy choosing their favorite books.

2ng Grade

For the past few weeks, we have been reviewing good library citizenship and respect towards books. The children have enjoyed watching a slide show and listening to a read-aloud.

Happy October K4 and K5 Friends! I hope you all had a restful break. Your children came back full of energy and enthusiasm. They are all looking forward to Halloween. This is why we are reading our first Halloween books of the month...Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O'Connell and Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson. With these stories we are counting, predicting, and retelling, as well as reviewing lots of "creepy " words. Boooo!!!

During this fun celebration, we are adding A Dark, Dark Tale by Ruth Brown and Pumpking Trouble by Jan Thomas. We are also doing some scary monsters after reading Go Away Big Green Monster by: Ed Emberly.

Welcome back, I hope you had a restful break! Everyone seems excited to be in school again. I am thrilled to see how eager and passionate our students are for reading. They are also very excited about celebrating Halloween soon. This is why we have started reading a fun and colorful book called Skeleton for Dinner by Margery Cuyler. This fun story can fool us from the start. It makes us want to reach the end quickly and find out what the witches are really having for dinner.

During the past week we delighted ourselves with a great story, Bone Soup by Cambria Evans. We learned that though Halloween is filled with creepy creatures, it is a great celebration that can bring us together and invite us to share!

Welcome back! I hope you had a relaxing break. I am happy to see all our students back in school eager to learn and excited to pick their favorite titles at the library. I can see they are also getting ready for Halloween. This is why we are reading a book filled with creepy creatures. In Skeleton for Dinner, by Margaret Cuyler, we can see how a witch's good intention can be misunderstood. It all depends on how we wish to interpret the message.

During the past week we delighted ourselves with a great story, Bone Soup by Cambria Evans. We learned that though Halloween is filled with creepy creatures, it is a great celebration that can bring us together and invite us to share!

Our first semester is flying by. We are already getting set to celebrate one of the most meaningful holidays: Thanksgiving! It is a great opportunity to have our children think of how many beautiful people surround them and how many wonderful things they have.

In K4, we will start supporting vocabulary on clothes. To begin, the students will be hearing a classic and funny story by Hans Christian Andersen called The Emperor's New Clothes.

In K5 we will be reading a hilarious book called Caution: Do Not open This Book by Adam Lehrhaupt.

It is amazing how time flies! We are already getting prepared to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. During the first week of November, we will be reading a story about feelings and friendship. This book by Helen Lester, called Hurty Feelings, will be read on the screen on the Follet Shelf platform. I certainly hope our students will enjoy reading this touching story which is one of the 70 eBooks we have on this virtual library.

Happy Thanksgiving Day! What a great opportunity to be thankful for everyone around us. Specially those who love us and help us like our family and our friends. This is why I chose a story about a fish who realizes how much he misses his friends when he finds himself alone in his tank.

We will be reading this book on the FolletShelf platform. I hope the children enjoy this eBook and begin reading on our virtual library.

We are all very happy to see the Kinder 4 students enjoying the library. Since the beginning of this semester, they have started checking out books to take home! It is wonderful to see how carefully they choose their favorite characters. Also, we are hearing many students talk about what they are learning from non-fiction books. It seems that parents are having a good time too.

We are reading about animals to support classroom vocabulary. They have loved the story MILO is Not a Dog Today by: Kerstin Schoene. They have enjoyed learning new words and seeing how the main character turns himself into different animals to make friends.

In the Story Duck on a Bike, the children had the chance to review the animal vocabulary they had been learning in their classrooms.

In Kinder 5 we are are promoting reading in Spanish. During this cycle the students are choosing the stories they want me to read. We are having a blast!

For Valentine's Day, we read a rhyming book called If You'll Be My Valentine by: Cynthia Rylant. All the students shared who they wanted to send Valentine's cards to.

One of the characters they enjoyed the most was Pete the Cat. The students loved hearing the story we read on how Pete was able to make Valentine's cards for all his friends. It was easy when he thought how special each one was.

1st Grade

At the beginning of February we promoted reading in Spanish. The children had a great time picking the books they wanted me to read in class. I loved the fact that the books they picked most of the time were by Colombian authors!

During Valentine's Day celebration we read If You'll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant. They enjoyed hearing this story in rhyme. Afterwards the children decided they all wanted to make Valentine's cards for their family and friends.

During this month we also learned about literary prizes. The first medal we talked about was the Caldecott. The students enjoyed seeing the beautiful pictures in the book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by: Dan Santat. They loved it and had lots to share as they made connections with the story.

During February the 2nd graders enjoyed a beautiful story about friendship called The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by: Dan Santat. It was a great read-aloud for all of them to practice Accelerated Reader. After the story, the whole class took the quiz and did great!

The following weeks were spent sitting together talking about their reading preferences. We also looked at their progress reports on the ipads to see how many quizzes each student had taken and how many of them had scored points. Everyone seemed excited about taking quizzes on their own. It was great to see how well they all worked independently. Many students were very happy to earn prizes.

The K4 students are enjoying learning lots of new words related to transportation.We have read a Big Book called Down by the Stationillustratedby Jess Stockham. This book is filled with with colorful pictures, rhythm, and patterns.

In K5, the students reviewed their alphabet with a beautifully illustrated book called Peter Rabbit's Hide and Seek ABCwritten by Frederick Warne, based on stories by Beatrix Potter. Knowing their alphabet helps them understand the labeling in the library.

Kinder 4 & 5

Last month we reviewed vocabulary related to fruits and vegetables. The students loved re-reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. They enjoyed seeing the caterpillar puppet eating through every page and then turning into a beautiful butterfly.

Another fun book we read was Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Everyone had the chance to share what their favorite vegetables are.

For Saint Patrick's Day and Easter we enjoyed reading Green Shamrocks by Eve Bunting and Here Comes the Easter Cat by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by our famous Colombian illustrator, Claudia Rueda.

In K5, children learned about four important literary prizes: Caldecott, Theodore Seuss Geisel, Pura Belpre, and Coretta Scott King. It's hard to say which one was their favorite story, but most importantly, they know what these medals are and who receives them.

In 1st grade, children learned about four important literary prizes: Caldecott, Theodore Seuss Geisel, Pura Belpre, and Coretta Scott King. It's hard to say which one was their favorite story, but most importantly, they have learned what these medals are and who receives them.

1st Grade

Learning about great authors and illustrators is always fun and interesting. Specially if it is one of those people whose books we have been enjoying for decades. The students loved learning about Beatrix Potter! We started with a slideshow of her life. Then we read The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The following class we watched an episode calledThe World of Peter Rabbit and Friends were they had a chance to see the setting where Ms. Potter lived and all her characters. To finalize our author study, we made the beautiful garden of Mr. Mc Gregor with every 1st grade class. I hope you received the pictures.